TV Highlights

Singer, Actor

About This Person

From All Movie Guide: The only rock star ever to enjoy prolonged success on the silver screen, Elvis Presley was a phenomenon the likes of whom will never be seen again. His impact remains incalculable, and it could easily be argued that no figure of the postwar era exerted a greater or more far-reaching influence on popular culture. It is fashionable to bash his 31 feature films, and indeed they pale in comparison to Richard Lester's features with the Beatles, to name just one example. However, the continuing importance of rock & roll in film -- not only as a subject matter but also as an essential component of soundtracks and scores -- seems inconceivable had Presley not first made the music both commercially viable and culturally palatable. His movies were made and marketed solely for his fans, and they responded in droves. By extension, he created a youth market which, despite myriad generational changes, remains essentially the same decades later, and all other pop musicians turned movie stars, from Prince to Madonna to the Spice Girls, have followed in his footsteps.